Maybe big kitties simply like “heavy” litter. One of our Maines used to mound pea gravel to place his “logs” on every day. He was the official boss of our feral colony and placed his mark to keep all intruders out. And it worked!

The Feb ‘07 issue of Catnip (Tufts U) rated litter pans, scoops and litter. Bottom line - cats prefer BIG pans (duh), we like BIG scoopers (although I prefer metal to plastic) and two litters I have not tried and don’t plan to - Cat Attract (“tracks quite a bit and very dusty”) and Citra-Max. Cats hate the smell of citrus; they got one brave cat to try it once - he refused to ever go back! Probably smells like skunk does to us.

And we think they are finicky about food?!

“Gina, could you show us a picture of your “string with a snap on it” that keeps the door open for the cat, but not for the dog? I’d love to be able to set something like that up for Lindsey to keep Pepper out of his area!”

I used to do a variation on this with a long hook and eye arrangement something like this:

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/i.....SS500_.gif

You should be able to find extra long hook-and-eyes at any home improvement store.

Comment by Kathy — June 18, 2007 @ 1:23 pm

“’cat box candy bars’ they love so much.”

Funny! A friend of mine called it “Kitty Roca”! VBG!

My cats are good in the box. I have those covered ones with no doors on them. Everyone seems happy.

I use World’s Best Cat litter in a box for the older cat, and I have flushed it. Everyone’s plumbing differs, and your mileage may vary. I did this for a short time while a foster kitten was under isolation, to keep from having to carry it through the house, on which trip I inevitably fall over and spill litter every where if I’m thinking about being careful.

I once read Gossip on an automated litter box forum/discussion from an article link and users there stated that automatic litter boxes lifespans depended on the type of litter you used. World’s Best Cat litter (or a similar clumping non-clay litter type) was recommended for the Litter Robot and others. Of course, those folks may have just been desperate not to scoop.

I just use a sift pan and scoop, I like being able to drag everything outside, scrub, and then sun bake for awhile, when I completely change the litter in a box.

When I lived in more “normal” housing (currently in 100+ year old house where the bathroom was retrofitted into a tiny space in the back of the house), I always kept the litter box in the bathroom and just scooped after I’d done my business. I flushed the poop and put the clumps in a plastic bag in the wastebasket that I loosely twisted the top of so there wasn’t any smell. The cats were always happy because the litter box was always clean. Guests never cared because the litter box didn’t smell and after all, it was a bathroom — who cared if everyone in the house was using it. It was also nice because if cats were unhappy, they pooped in the bathtub — easy to see if something was wrong and very, very easy to clean up after.

Since our bathroom is too small for a litterbox, I now have Gina’s system for Lindsey in the mudroom extension of the kitchen.

Since scoopable litter has come out, all my cats have preferred it. My Persians couldn’t stand the smell of the pine litter, so I never bought it again. No cat has ever liked Yesterday’s News (smell?) or the crystals (feel?).

Now that Pepper is older, she doesn’t try to eat Lindsey’s litter anymore, but when she was a puppy, this was a real problem. Now, we mostly have to keep her out of Lindsey’s food (he’s a nibbler, so we have to keep his food dish high so that he can jump to it, but Pepper can’t). Would really love to see Gina’s system for giving Clara some privacy!

I live on a small farm, so my cats are indoor/outdoor cats, but some do prefer to do bathroom duty in the house, (in a litter box!).

The horses, bunnies, and cats all use the same pelletized bedding for litter. All of my baby bunnies are raised in the house and the mom teaches them to use the box!

I have used regular pine shavings, and now the pellets for years with the cats, and have never had any problems. The pine seems to eliminate any smells, and it’s so cheap, rather than cleaning the box excessively, I just dump it all out every couple of days and replace with entirely new. No more ‘treasure hunts’.

-Diana

Besides, I find that cleaning the boxes is really no big deal for me, so I’ve never felt the need to switch from the old-school methods. I use Cat Attract litter (amazing stuff) in the boxes that the fussy cat uses, and World’s Best in the third box, which all the cats use. Like Andrea 2CatMom, I follow Dr. Lisa Pierson’s cleaning method, which hasn’t really added to the workload and seems to make a difference to the cats.